another sunday .. another free day

An unconstrained word, floating in space
cavorting around, jumping from place to place
bringing joy to some and pain to some other face

--- No, not another abstract poem? ./restart

My dear boy! come and sit down,
your uncle-aunt are here,
talk to them about this, that and the town

No, no mama, I need to, want to go,
here, there, any some where
to sit with them, would be a big bore

Shut up boy! thats not how you speak
what could be more interesting?
than a chat with aunt fatty and uncle sleek?

A game with friends? a cartoon show?
all that uncle-aunt talk about
is about their times, their farm and their cow.

They are great experienced people,
you should listen to them
they teach you to live life, grand and simple.

I want to live my own life, make my own mistakes
not follow a well lit defined path
unpredictability is the form that pleasure in life takes

To not learn from others makes you a fool
your life neednt be pre-determined
but faltering at the same places, wont make it cool

My dear mother and son, stop fighting over us
boy! we brought you a chocolate
so come here, take it and stop making a fuss.

Oh dear! everything we said, you could hear?
the silly boy is very young
dont mind him, all his ideas are weird and queer

Oh! sorry my dear uncle and aunty,
I didnt mean you were boring
Its just that I was trying to be naughty. :)

-- I need to write that post about my london trip .. soon before I forget!

Disjoint verses

Skimming through the list
ticking off names one after other
hoping to find atleast some one
to call at this ungodly hour

---

Carrying my bags, at a great pace
straining my hands, with no solace
opening 3 locks and their attached doors
I enter my room and untie my shoe lace :D

---

Spewing out words, with no target
chewing my thoughts, having no regret
I wonder whether I had earlier lived
or me and my life, we just met?

---

I thank S for his little wonderful verses
and I thank V for his online company
and to appreciate VS for his poems
I do not find words worth any.

S=Sreejith, V=Vidit, VS=VikramSeth :D

Irreversible

His eyes dart around trying to pierce the darkness. He raises his hand right upto his face but it still remains invisible. The darkness is absolute. Torn between nonchalance and concern, he tries to don his usual facade. He knew that it was a small matter. Being worried about it was sheer stupidity. But he worried nonetheless. He was expected to let things be. He expected himself to let things be. But he wondered whether there wasnt the faint chance that a few perturbations would bring the whole system into a better configuration? Should he try and risk disturbing the current state drastically and for the worse, permanently? Or should he be inactive and never know what could have been?

Smiling, feet over leaves fallen
walking, eyes far far ahead
wondering, pondering, speculating
what he should and shouldnt have said.

Cold .. fireworks ... history

Its Diwali all over again here. Britain is celebrating the Guy Fawkes Night. Fireworks have been exploding everywhere all through the weekend. Our university celebrated it on friday. I recorded a small part of it on my new free nokia n73 :D. Access here. Cracker sounds have been interminable on all the three evenings. On saturday and sunday, the city seemed to have been engulfed in smoke as it happens back home during Diwali.

Travelled around Winchester on yesterday i.e saturday. It is just 15 mins bus journey away from Southampton. It was the ancient capital of England. Very small place. We circled it twice in the span of 6 hours that we spent there. I was interested in looking at the famed round table of King Arthur. However, I hadn't expect it to be mounted on a wall. I was hoping to actually see a table, not a table top hung on the wall :D. In the evening, the whole city seemed to gather on the High street for the celebration of 'night' mentioned earlier. Every city here has a 'high street' which is like the main street of the city. Carrying fire torches, they participated in a procession. We couldnt join them as we had to catch the bus back to Southampton. Anyway, we got ourselves one of the torches though. It atleast helped in warming up my freezing palms.

Talking about cold weather, walking at 7 in the morning when the temperature is 0 degree celsius is an unique experience. One can only truly understand it after undertaking the 'walk'. Yeah it is cold. The temperature at any time of the day never crosses into double digits nowadays. And it has led to quite a few observations-

1. Why people dance so well and so much here? A lot of practice. They practice dancing everytime they need to stand outside and wait for something. Can be frequently observed in the bus stops. People jumping, moving their legs about. Afterall, they got to keep the cold away by some activity.

2. Why people smoke so much? Well, it seems a unconventional way to prevent your nose and mouth from freezing. Also, no one can figure out whether you are smoking a cigarette or are just plain breathing. Our breath is as visible as the puff exhaled by a smoker. The affects are different though. One is a life giver, the other a life taker.

3. Why people walk so fast on the pavements? To get indoors as soon as possible obviously. Who would want to get a frostbite?

Stepping out into the open at 5pm to find the sky completely dark is a bewildering experience too. It wasnt so disconcerting when the sun used to set at 9pm in the begining of september when I had just arrived. Why?

I have come across quite a few old Indian postgraduates. By 'old' I refer to their ages being above 40. Yeah. Quite a few of them. Had a detailed discussion with one such Telugu person whose age must have been around 60. He joined the university this year to pursue Mres in some social sciences field. Why!! you ask? Well, he stated that having fulfilled all his obligations, with his children now happily settled, he decided to pursue something that had been interesting to him all his life. I havent come across similarly 'old' students of other nationalities. Maybe I havent noticed them or maybe such people are mostly Indians?

I felt like writing this post after reading poor Obelix's rantings

Yet another ....

Not busy, but no leisure
restless without a cause.
Afraid of the future
cant step out of the house.

Living in a mystery
waiting to be aroused.
Searching for the elusive light
when everything is doused.

Then, burst out the sparkle
bright as the lightning.
A faint hint of hope,
a renewed zeal igniting.

The final radiant glimmer
before fading into eternity,
a last struggle for life
before slipping into apathy.

This comes to you from the lab. For the first time, tried writing something when surrounded by people moving about here and there.